For me though the most touching memorials were those that remembered common men lost in wars, most a long war from home…

Those memorialized in the solemn flag adorned Saint Michael’s Chapel…

soldiers who died in a seemingly endlessly morphing conflict…

soldiers who died in what seems an entirely different world…

and the World War I ace’s plaque marked with a wreath of scarlet poppies still so evident in the UK and that I remember my parents buying in my childhood but now mostly gone from United States remembrances…

Outside the remains of the cloisters – ruined by time and the vagaries of religion – offer moments of quiet at the end of our too brief exploration.